I'm having a problem while playing games where my computer will completely lock up and (sometimes) go black for about 5-10 seconds. I really haven't been able to figure out what is causing it and thought it would be easier to pinpoint if I could record cpu/memory usage, along with what specific process is using it while this event occurs. I can't use task manager as it happens due to me being in-game. Any applications that record usage?

Yeah, I reinstalled my graphics driver and it unfortunately didn't solve the problem. :( However, it seems what ever it is, it's forcing the game to minimize for a second or two, which is what is causing my screen to go black apparently. Fortunately I've been able to overcome the annoying symptom by disabling "exclusive mode" for the game, so it is just in the background and doesn't actually get minimized. Don't think I'll be able to solve the problem though... Resource monitor hasn't given me any leads.

Well it seems this issue isn't related to the game in question, Heroes of Newerth, at all. Apparently I'm having some more serious hardware issues. I'm on my macbook pro under boot camp. The issue has now been presenting itself while simply browsing the internet - the entire computer will become unresponsive for ~10 seconds. Twice in the last few days my computer has taken up to 20 minutes to even hear the initial boot beep sound. The freezing is also occuring under OS X. I think I'll have to send it in for service. :(

Interesting, I never knew about the issues with the 8600m GT. Guess I might send it in before the 4 years is up. I wouldn't doubt that's part of the reason my computer constantly stutters/screen blanking. Otherwise, I'm pretty confident I've discovered the real problem. My battery is completely toast. After unplugging my laptop for 5 minutes it completely shutdown, despite being plugged in for hours.

some bad batteries may prevent the laptop/device from starting, but usually once its up and running they dont interfere, be it they hold or no a charge. its a possibility, nonetheless. run it batteryless and see what gives./